Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope that you have had a wonderful Thanksgiving, filled with knowledge of all the blessings that our gracious God has bestowed upon us and in our lives.  We spent the day with our wonderful extended family at my cousins house in Alabama.  Here are a few of those sweet blessings...

 It's so odd to not be at the kids table anymore... but it was definitely a full table!

 My cousins and I had a little glimpse of our own childhoods as we watched our children play games (indoor and out) - just like we would do together.  It was so sweet and fun to see.

 Once we got back home, the kids were sacked out..... and slowly I started to take down our Thanksgiving decorations.  The one thing I just can't bring myself to take down yet is our Thanksgiving Tree.  We have had so many laughs, smiles and discussions about the things and people that we are thankful for.

 The girls had such a good time with this tradition - I think they'll have a bit of withdrawal when they realize it's not on the table anymore.  We would pull out our leaves and markers and Nicole would start yelling, "I tankful! I tankful!" She loved telling me something she was thankful for (usually cheese or pizza or someone in our family) and then she got to help tape the leaves on the tree. Megan loved being able to write the things she was thankful for.

 Tomorrow we'll have to have the conversation explaining that our season of Thankfulness isn't over - we are just ushering it to completion.  We are moving into a new type of thankfulness - reminding ourselves that we are thankful for the blessings that God has given us BECAUSE He first gave us His Son.

 So while the girls slept, we moved all the Christmas boxes upstairs, set up the big nativity..

And put up the tree and lights (the things that would be a LOT more difficult with little helpers) and tomorrow..... we decorate!

It's hard to believe that Advent starts in 3 days.....  I can't wait to show you all the things we have planned.